My new EP 1915 is out now – listen to it wherever you stream music, or purchase it from this website or Bandcamp.
The process for writing and recording this album was quite different from anything else I've done; let me tell you about it.
Two and a half years ago, Kelsey and I purchased an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, which had been our dream for many years. The house (built in 1915--big thanks to Kelsey for the idea of using this as the album title) needed some work, and during this process we were getting our old house ready to sell. This meant my studio equipment would be disassembled until we could move into our new house and build a new studio. I knew I needed to find a way to stay creative during this time, so rather than fighting against my circumstances, I came up with a challenge that allowed me to lean into them: pick six spots on the new property, write a song in each one, then record the song in the exact spot it was written. And get video of the entire process.
There's something odd and magical about walking into an empty farmhouse. The energy is fresh in the sense that you don't have any memories associated with the space, which gives you a clean creative slate to work with. But at the same time, you also know that there are over 100 years of memories buried in its bones, memories that are not yours, memories of love and loss and wonder and horror and all of the small, big, heavy, and light things that make up a life. And here you are, forcing yourself into this lineage, bringing your own hope and baggage.
I guess what it comes down to is that I wanted to document all these thoughts and feelings in music, music that I would have the opportunity to create in a new environment untainted of memories or connotation, to just sit down in a room and see what the house had to give me, without overthinking it. I chose acoustic guitar because the pastoral setting pretty much demanded it, and I forced myself to stick with the first thing I started playing in each spot. Sometimes what came out surprised me; sometimes it felt expected.
I wrote the songs quickly in the spring of 2023 and began the recording process in August 2023, using free weekend days to haul the studio equipment around the property, set it up, and track each part. Some of the songs were recorded in a single marathon recording day (Stuck At One, Jouska), others over the course of a couple of days (Let Me In, Oubliette), and others were slowly chipped away at over many months (To the Dawn, Steal Us Away). For all of them though, I was forced to plan ahead and set aside a majority of a day to record, rather than follow my usual process of recording in short bursts over a long period of time. I also needed to have the parts written in advance as much as possible, which isn't normal for me.
I finished recording all the tracks in October 2024, after Kelsey and I had been living in the house for several months, and did the final mixing in my new studio. The music was finished in April 2025, and since then I've been working on the videos for each song, which I will release each week over the next five weeks. The video for “Let Me In” was already released last month:
Making this album was a refreshing, fun, and fulfilling experience, and I like to think that comes out in the music. I hope you enjoy it.
All songs written, performed, produced, and mixed by Tom Hummer.
Mastering by Martin Merenyi.